Teen's attorney: To hear from 50

Slayings-case transfer at issue

CONWAY -- The defense intends to call as many as 50 witnesses during a juvenile-transfer hearing for capital-murder defendant Hunter Drexler next month, an attorney said Thursday.

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Defense attorney John Kennedy commented in Faulkner County Circuit Court as a judge heard arguments on disputes involving subpoenas for the transfer hearing, scheduled to begin Oct. 18.

Judge Troy Braswell granted Kennedy's motion that the prosecution be required to treat subpoenas served by each side as joint subpoenas for the transfer hearing.

But Braswell denied a separate defense motion to quash the prosecution's subpoenas of certain witnesses for pretrial interviews. The defense contends those witnesses, who include Drexler's parents and grandfather, are defense witnesses. Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Hugh Finkelstein countered that they are prosecution witnesses even if they are the defendant's family members.

Drexler, 19, of Clinton is charged with two counts each of capital murder and other offenses in the July 21, 2015, shooting deaths of Robert and Patricia Cogdell, both 66, of Conway. Drexler was 17 at the time of the killings but was charged as an adult.

Justin Staton, 15, of Conway and Connor Atchley, 18, of Greenbrier have pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in the Cogdells' deaths and have been sentenced to prison. The Cogdells had been Staton's legal guardians since 2010. A fourth defendant, Atchley's girlfriend, Anastasia Roberts, 18, of Conway, is awaiting trial. She is charged with two counts each of first-degree murder and felony theft by receiving.

Arguments in court Thursday indicated that the juvenile-transfer hearing would provide a glimpse of what to expect when Drexler's trial begins. The trial dates haven't been set.

One major difference, though, is that the burden of proof in the transfer hearing is on the defense, whereas the prosecution has the burden of proving guilt in a trial.

Kennedy noted that one of the considerations in the transfer hearing would be Drexler's level of culpability in the crime. Some witnesses the defense wants to subpoena for that hearing could offer testimony to help determine that level, he told Braswell.

Finkelstein, though, said some of the witnesses the defense wants subpoenaed don't even appear to have information that would be relevant at that hearing. He said the prosecution doesn't want to waste people's time and that the defense has not provided the date and time it intends to call each witness during the hearing. Kennedy said he would assume that responsibility, and Braswell ordered the defense to provide that information.

Finkelstein said after the hearing that he also intends to use testimony by witnesses as a way of deposing them before the trial.

The motion seeking juvenile transfer was sealed. Braswell has not said whether the hearing on that matter will be open.

State Desk on 09/30/2016

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